Make Words Click! Learning English Vocabulary with clickers: users’ perceptions

Abstract

Clickers are hand-held devices that wirelessly transmit student input to a computer: students answer multiple-choice questions using their clickers and the answer distribution is displayed on a screen. Previous studies suggest that the pedagogical use of these devices may contribute to learning and that they are positively perceived by students in general and second language education. Despite these optimistic outcomes, clicker studies remain scarce in L2 education and in K-12 contexts.

This study investigated 61 adolescent students’ and their teacher’s perceptions of using clickers to learn vocabulary in an English as a Second Language context. Two intact groups of students were assigned to a treatment group (Clicker Group, n = 31; Non-Clicker Group, n = 30). Their perceptions were examined via surveys and interviews, guided by four measures: Learning, Self-assessment, Engagement, and Interactivity. The results suggest that students in the Clicker Group had significantly more positive perceptions than those in the Non-Clicker Group for most measures. This corroborates previous findings regarding students’ perceptions of clickers. Interviews were conducted to assess the teacher’s perceptions. In contrast to the students, the teacher’s perception was predominantly neutral to negative, contradicting existing literature.

Keywords:

• Learner response systems
• clickers
• L2 pedagogy
• users’ perceptions

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Anne-Marie Sénécal

Anne-Marie Sénécal is a graduate student of Applied Linguistics at Concordia University. Her research interests include the pedagogical use of clickers, educational games, and speech technologies (TTS, ASR) in L2 education. She also teaches ESL at a College in Montréal (Canada).

Walcir Cardoso

Walcir Cardoso is a Professor of Applied Linguistics at Concordia University. He conducts research on the L2 acquisition of phonology, morphosyntax and vocabulary, and the effects of computer technology (e.g., clickers, text-to-speech synthesizers, automatic speech recognition,intelligent personal assistants) on L2 learning.

Vanessa Mezzaluna

Vanessa Mezzaluna is a graduate student in Educational Studies at Concordia University. She is also a College English as a Second Language Teacher in Montréal.